GNU Info

(texinfo)Cross Reference Parts

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Enter node , (file) or (file)node

Parts of a Cross Reference
==========================

  A cross reference command requires only one argument, which is the
name of the node to which it refers.  But a cross reference command may
contain up to four additional arguments.  By using these arguments, you
can provide a cross reference name for Info, a topic description or
section title for the printed output, the name of a different Info
file, and the name of a different printed manual.

  Here is a simple cross reference example:

     @xref{Node name}.

which produces

     Note: Node name.

and

     See Section NNN [Node name], page PPP.

  Here is an example of a full five-part cross reference:

     @xref{Node name, Cross Reference Name, Particular Topic,
     info-file-name, A Printed Manual}, for details.

which produces

     Note: Cross Reference Name,
     for details.

in Info and

     See section "Particular Topic" in A Printed Manual, for details.

in a printed book.

  The five possible arguments for a cross reference are:

  1. The node or anchor name (required).  This is the location to which
     the cross reference takes you.  In a printed document, the
     location of the node provides the page reference only for
     references within the same document.

  2. The cross reference name for the Info reference, if it is to be
     different from the node name.  If you include this argument, it
     becomes the first part of the cross reference.  It is usually
     omitted.

  3. A topic description or section name.  Often, this is the title of
     the section.  This is used as the name of the reference in the
     printed manual.  If omitted, the node name is used.

  4. The name of the Info file in which the reference is located, if it
     is different from the current file.  You need not include any
     `.info' suffix on the file name, since Info readers try appending
     it automatically.

  5. The name of a printed manual from a different Texinfo file.

  The template for a full five argument cross reference looks like this:

     @xref{NODE-NAME, CROSS-REFERENCE-NAME, TITLE-OR-TOPIC,
     INFO-FILE-NAME, PRINTED-MANUAL-TITLE}.

  Cross references with one, two, three, four, and five arguments are
described separately following the description of `@xref'.

  Write a node name in a cross reference in exactly the same way as in
the `@node' line, including the same capitalization; otherwise, the
formatters may not find the reference.

  You can write cross reference commands within a paragraph, but note
how Info and TeX format the output of each of the various commands:
write `@xref' at the beginning of a sentence; write `@pxref' only
within parentheses, and so on.